ITMA Scores Big with Launch of Facilitated Education
by: Mark Vanden Berge

December 8, Steelcase University Learning Center
ITMA has successfully launched into the world of professional development/ education with the completion of its first Facilitated Education course.  The class was conducted with great skill by our ICEX partners, Rick Swanborg and Bruce Rogow, facilitating and presenting for the day.   It was warmly received, and based on the survey results, will be immensely helpful to those who participated.   A huge round of Thank Yous goes out to both the Steering Committee and our participating ITMA companies for getting over 25 individuals and 18 different companies in attendance for the day.

Indeed, with Rick and Bruce tag-teaming the day-long event, everyone was pulling for great things to happen.  But would Murphy and/or other natural laws cooperate or would they conspire against ITMA's humble endeavor?

Well, indeed, the luck of the Irish was on our side this day (with the exception of some freezing rain).   We should not forget to add another quick word of thanks to Steelcase for making the Steelcase Learning University Campus and staff available to ensure the event came off without a hitch.  Their state of the art classrooms made for an ideal setting to have Rick and Bruce work their magic, by serving up an informational but also interactive kind of classroom experience.  Moreover, judging simply from the welcoming continental breakfast to a fabulous lunch spread and then on to the leisurely happy hour, the food and accommodations tipped off our students that they were in for a world-class day.

A little bit of review: as we have been making members aware, participants paid a separate tuition over and above their ITMA dues in order to take part in the class, and the fees varied based on number of seats and interest in future sessions.  Pre-readings were sent out two weeks in advance to give "students" time to digest the 40 or so pages of articles and academic material showcasing real-world examples of best practice.  Many seemed appreciative of the pre-exercise by comments heard regarding receiving materials in advance.   In addition, ICEX then had their own presentations to help with the flow connecting each segment of the day.

Overall, the class rated their experience of Facilitated Education as a 4.5 out of 5 points.  ITMA is delighted with this kind of rating and of the positive comments that came along with the evaluations. Even the comments that were offered more in the critique line were incredibly helpful.  But to say that we are not just a little bit proud of having our members receive this kind of value from the time and money they put forth would be a big denial on our part.  Perhaps the ultimate vote of confidence was the 4.4 rating for how we met with their expectations going into the course and we believe, in addition to the exceptional reviews for organization of the class, this gives us the mandate for the future we had hoped for.

Specifically, the day was divided into five course modules.  Bruce Rogow began the day with an up to date survey of the entire IT Strategy landscape as practiced in the U.S. today based on real world experiences with his Odyssey clients.  (Good to have his humor going already at 9am to warm up the crowd.)  At around 10:30 Rick took things into more of framework development with his Approaches for Building IT strategy.   Upon completion of Rick's framework talk, he had folks discussing their particular environments and bouncing ideas off one another. One of the enlightening discoveries noted was that in many corporate instances IT Strategy is really no different from the Corporate Strategy; in fact, in more than a few organizations, the IT strategy was one in the same as business strategy, since many corporate managers did not differentiate one from another.

The third module was a planned activity during the lunch hour with the class breaking into groups where sample volunteer companies "bared their soul" about the challenges they faced in developing a meaningful IT strategy and the complications in achieving such an objective.  Their cohorts then gave input and advice, and in some cases said they even planned to "steal" some great ideas with honor and gave credit to those already doing some great strategic things.  A reporting after lunch closed out this module in a successful manner--some reported in their surveys that this might have been the most helpful part of the day.

The afternoon session exploded with a Fast Strategy from Rick and perhaps was so fast it had many still wondering what hit them, yet it was filled with great ideas and content.  Bruce's final module was the icing on the cake and was challenging to many since some companies are not up to speed with some of the necessary "lower levels" of the pyramid of IT needs to get their upper management to engage; moreover, some do not have the empowerment necessary within their organizations to properly engage at the strategic level.    This may prove to be a great launching off point for a future session.

Here are some of the comments that we directly received that we wish to report (in an unfiltered fashion)

On the Positive side:

• Overall course was excellent and received great value for cost and time spent.
• Good discussion amongst group.
• I am not alone to have business view IT as an asset.
• Good modeling atmosphere utilizing an open forum.
• Thank you for keeping session on time. Great facility, great food.
• Very useful in all aspects, made some great local contacts as well.
• Good tools and new approaches outlined in presentations.
• I liked the tag team approach with instructors.
• Great examples of factors delivering on unsuccessful alignment efforts.
• Roundtable – details about Bissell’s process, nice to compare and contrast.
• Group exercise was most productive aspect of training. Hearing objective opinions as to what other peers are doing.
• It is obvious the instructors are well versed. Also knowledgeable beyond consultant mentality. 
• I will definitely attend upcoming events.
• Loved it--two thumbs way up. 

Suggestions for the future:
Students shared with us some very insightful suggestions for improving the class experience which we plan to incorporate in the immediate future.  Here are several that we want to pass on to all of you.

1. Handouts--There were a lot of paper materials, could we work with thumb drives instead?
    Perhaps different colors on slides could be used as some of them were hard to read on the screen.
2. Material organization--Perhaps a better breakdown of material (smaller chunks?) and allow for sharing after each new theme.  Think components, i.e., with business alignment, have each company share their own experience.
   More specific directions to organize the case study exercise during the lunch hour.  More summary activity after each object lesson. 
3. Evaluations--Perhaps ask for evaluation reactions in writing after each module, otherwise there is was a lot of ground to cover during one final reaction
4. Directions--Better email on time of meeting and directions.
5. Prep conference call--Should take care to make that more meaningful

Summary
ITMA leadership is tremendously grateful to everyone who made this a success and for the enthusiastic turnout for the class.  As mentioned, we believe our interest in bringing this kind of offering to West Michigan has been more than validated, and we plan to proceed confidently to our next sessions for 2009, which will be March 3 and September 16.  Start planning now to make these classes a mandatory part of your yearly training for yourself or colleagues you wish to develop in the IT arena.

(The same price rules will apply.  If you can commit to more than one seat, and/ or more than one session, ITMA members can take advantage of price breaks on the cost of upcoming classes.  Keep your eyes peeled for forthcoming invitation with specific course information.)

ITMA wishes all of you, your team and your families a Happy New Year and the very best for 2009!  We will continue to work hard for you.